December 21, 2017

CNN admits Trump tax cuts will make a difference. They're not alone.

Some green shoots of media honesty are starting to appear. No, the mainstream media has not done an about-face on president Trump. And don't expect this to take hold more broadly. But there are some admissions in mainstream media outlets that this tax bill is not so bad.

...But not all party-line votes are created equal. Obamacare was a fundamental shift in how our government treated health care. It wasn't a debate over how high to set premiums. It was a clash between the fundamental values of the two parties: Collective action v. individual responsibility; government power v. personal choice. It's hard to compromise on core principles.

This tax bill? It's, well, just a tax bill. Yes, it cuts corporate tax rates to 21 percent, but you know who else proposed corporate tax cuts? President Obama. He wanted to cut them to 28 percent. Is that 7-percent gap between the Obama plan and the GOP really "a monstrosity and a danger to the country," as Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer claims? Then again, Mitch McConnell rejected Obama's tax plan, just the way Schumer rejected President Trump's. He said Obama's plan lacked "meaningful bipartisan input."

Like the Obamacare compromise, the GOP's tax bill does quite a few things Democrats usually support. It nearly doubles the standard deduction (from $6,350 to $12,000 for single filers and from $12,700 to $24,000 for joint filers)—which is what most low-income families use, rather than itemizing.

Yes this is coming from a conservative columnist, but the fact that it's even there is interesting. Reality could be starting to creep in and the mainstream media have realized that their rush to oppose anything Trump has possibly led them off a cliff. Hot Air points out the Washington Post's uh-oh moment.

The realization will not fully set in until it's too late for them to recognize it's an issue for Democrats in 2018, and that's a good thing.